


Day 22 - Fall

by GemmaRose



Series: OC-tober [11]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Break Up, Breaking Up & Making Up, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Song: Geronimo (Sheppard)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, you have to let them go.
Relationships: Original Cybertronian Character(s)/Original Cybertronian Character(s)
Series: OC-tober [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958275
Kudos: 3





	Day 22 - Fall

“Calidus?”

Calidus scrambled to his pedes, spinning around to see just the mech he’d been hoping for. Geronimo, back on his own two pedes, new motivator obviously in full working order. “Geronimo!” he beamed, reaching through the curtain of oil which hid the entrance to their temporary base to grab his conjunx by the wrist. Geronimo stumbled into his arms, and Calidus wrapped him in a tight hug, pressing a fervent kiss to Geronimo’s lips as soon as they were in range. “I missed you so much.” he murmured when they parted, only pulling away enough to rest his forehelm and nasal ridge against Geronimo’s. “When they took you, I-”

“I know.” Geronimo said, his voice... wrong. Flat where it should have been soft, not a note of compassion or comfort. “You launched a full frontal assault on the Tesk facility to get me back.”

“Well, yeah, you’re my conjunx.” he smiled, letting Geronimo pull away a bit further, taking both of Geronimo’s hands in his own.

“And if I hadn’t been?” he asked, the glyphs weighted with challenge.

“I don’t understand.” Calidus frowned.

“And that’s the problem.” Geronimo sighed, his hands limp in Calidus’s. “I can’t keep doing this, Arson.”

Calidus stiffened, doorwings going rigid behind his back. “Geronimo, what-”

“Let me finish.” he said, no anger or- or _anything_ in his tone. “When we became conjunx, Arson, I swore my spark to you, and you to me. We swore to protect each other, but you-” his hands trembled. Arson squeezed them, and he pulled them away completely, tucking them against the purple badge which sat in the middle of his chestplate, a copy of the one machined for his Act of Profference which still sat over Calidus’s own spark. “You don’t know when to _stop_. Meteor told me what happened, he told me everything. How many mechs we lost to the council, how many more we lost in the attack. How you had our airforce bomb the facility to rubble once we were out.”

Arson reached out, and Geronimo took a step back, shaking his helm. “It was different before.” he said, his voice shaking. “It was- you only risked yourself, or yourself and some volunteers. Nobody got hurt before.”

“You may have missed it, Geronimo, but we’re kind of at war.” Calidus snapped. “Everyone here knew what they were signing up for, we all know that we have to win or die trying.”

“I didn’t sign up to have people die for me!” Geronimo shouted, hands falling to fists at his sides. “We lost mechs at Tesk, Arson. Good mechs, mechs I’ve been patching up for vorns. You threw them into a pointless battle. They didn’t give their lives to save Cybertron, _you_ gave up their lives for _me_.” his shoulders shook, the only sound the rush of the oilfall and the clattering of Geronimo’s vents. “I can’t-” his voice hitched around a blurt of static. “I can’t be the conjunx of a mech who’s willing to throw away dozens of lives for me.”

Calidus’s vents stalled, and Arson’s spark broke. What- was he supposed to say something? To try to make Geronimo feel better? Assure him it wouldn’t happen again?

That was a lie, and they both knew it.

“I’m sorry.” Geronimo whispered, and Arson’s hand moved faster than his thoughts, reaching up to his chestplate and grabbing the slab of metal welded on there.

“Here.” he bit out, grabbing the uppermost point and pulling, heating his fingers to scrape it off better. “You can have this back.” he shoved the badge into Geronimo’s hands, and shouldered past him to head back into the cave.

\---

Geronimo stared at the badge in his hand for a long moment, his spark tugging itself in what felt like a thousand different directions. He hadn’t expected it to go cleanly, but he hadn’t thought Arson would reject him so _completely_. He clenched his hand around the warm metal, crumpling it in his fist, and whipped it out into the open air past the oilfall. It arced smoothly down, and he watched as it plummeted into the pool at the base of the falls. There, gone, just like his relationship with Calidus. He cycled a steadying vent, and turned to head back into the base. There were still injured to treat, after all, and considering they’d been hurt for his sake it wouldn’t be right to let the other medics handle everything.

Except the entrance wasn’t empty. Calidus still stood there, optics wide, doorwings limp, radiating Hurt the way he usually radiated heat.

Oh, frag him sideways with a thorny spike. Conjunx or not, Calidus was his friend, the closest one he had after everything the Council had put them both through. No words would be enough to heal this wound.

But maybe action would.

Geronimo turned back towards the open air, and ran. He heard Calidus shout, felt the spike of alarm in the sparkbond they hadn’t yet severed, and then he was falling, angling his frame towards the oil below. Hitting it stung, like cornering too sharply and skidding into a wall, and the cold immediately sank into his frame, oil seeping into his seams like Cybertron’s worst bath. At least it was clear, he thought as he let himself sink. The softer metals which had once been here had long eroded away, leaving the basin of the pool smooth and clean. It made finding the crumpled remains of Calidus’s badge easy.

Getting _out_ of the pool was significantly harder, especially with the badge clutched in one hand, but after several kliks he managed to haul himself, wheezing and shivering, up onto the bank. Frag, he needed a hot shower now. Not that he was likely to get one, solvent and fuel were both at a premium at the moment, but a mech could dream.

His own motion had warmed him most of the way back up by the time he finished scaling the steep scree that stretched from the ledge outside the cave mouth down to the shore on this side of the pool, and when he staggered onto the ledge he found Calidus waiting. Waiting and fretting, pacing back and forth on the other side of the oilfall. Geronimo slowed to a stop before crossing through the curtain of oil, and looked down at the badge in his hand. They had argued before, running a rebellion meant high tensions and Arson certainly hadn’t inherited his carrier’s even temper, but Geronimo had never fragged up this bad. Maybe... maybe this was the one he couldn’t fix.

Heavy pedesteps drew his attention up from the crumpled metal in his hand, and he squawked as Calidus barreled into him, arms wrapping tight around his chassis, face tucking into the seam of his neck cables and collar fairing. He wasn’t sure if his legs gave out or Calidus’s, but they fell to their knees together, his arms coming up to wrap around Arson, a shiver working through his frame even as his friend’s outlier heat seeped into him at every point of contact.

“I’m sorry.” Calidus mumbled into his neck. “I’m sorry, Geronimo. I went too far.” his regret pulsed over their bond, clarifying what he meant. Too far with the attack, with the badge, with everything. “I’ll perform the rites of negation with you, but you need to know.” Arson pulled back, piercing blue optics bright and determined as they bored into Geronimo’s. “Nothing you can do, short of actively selling us out to the Council, will _ever_ make me stop loving you.”

“Funny.” Geronimo grinned, unwrapping one arm from around Calidus’s waist to touch the purple flame emblazoned on his chest. “I was going to say the same to you.” he unwrapped his other arm from around Calidus, and presented the crumpled badge to him with a pulse of _contrition affection uncertainty_ in his field. “This is yours.”

Arson took it with a pulse of _acceptance apology forgiveness_ , and Geronimo cycled his vents to steady himself before speaking again. “I’m yours, too. If you’ll have me as your amica.”

“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have.” Arson beamed, clasping both his hands over Geromino’s. “Now c’mon, let’s get you clean. I’ll heat up some solvent for a quick wash.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact, this scene was one of the first ones I came up with for Arson and Geronimo! Inspired entirely by the song [Geronimo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-SeaCZE2TM), which the character is named after. Turns out putting a song on loop while thinking about the mech you named after it comes with side effects!
> 
> Apologies to any not-logged-in readers, but due to an ex who refuses to leave me alone I have had to disable anon comments. Kudos are still open though, and if you want to scream (or would like me to write a fic for you) come check me out on Pillowfort! No account required to get my discord, and I'm always happy to chat. [[Link](https://www.pillowfort.social/GemmaRose)]


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